Tuesday, 30 September 2008

On Sunday we went to Gulliver's Theme Park at Milton Keynes, we had been in June and were given vouchers to return on certain weekends for £5 entry. Little did we know at the time of deciding on a date that Peppa Pig would be paying a visit to the park, but heh Hollie has Peppa toys and likes to watch it on the tele so even better! We met up with friends although we really didn't spend that much time together. Whilst we were trying to get to see Peppa, their middle son was wanting a go on a ride, then we took packed lunch they ate there, then the girls wanted to dress up at the top of the castle Jack didn't!! It was very busy, when we went in June we didn't queue for anything, almost had the park to ourselves which made a big difference. We didn't get to see Peppa's show as the theatre's not that big and each time we went to queue up up to 1/2 hour before the show, people in front of us were being told not to bother as they wouldn't get in anyway. We weren't that bothered really but some people were furious as I guess they had purposely taken their children there to see her! However she did come out onto the balcony in Main Street and did a dance so the girls did get to see her, sort of!

So here she is

Princess Lillie with her certificate and the rules of being a princess, Hollie decided not to join in.Hollie and myself just about to get a soaking on the log flume!Lillie and daddy right at the front of the roller coaster, how brave!Yesterday we went to Woburn Safari Park as I had been sent a complimentary pass. The weather was nicer this time although lovely and warm in the sun but a bit chilly in the shade. We did the safari drive as soon as we arrived and got pretty close to the zebra's again, so pretty, then we parked up and had a wander round the rest of the park. We started at the monkey's, they climb the trees and run along the rope fences along the path, I missed it but Lillie burst into tears and I had no idea as to why, then Matthew said 1 of the monkey's jumped from one side of the path to the other in front of Lillie, then decided to do it again but this time using Lillie's head as a leap-pad Lol.!!!! Why didn't we have the video camera?? This could be the guilty monkey?Then the girls and big child Matthew had lots of fun on the Tree Tops action Trail. Where I took these pictures of the girls After lunch we went round the rest of the animals, had a train ride around part of the park, then let the girls have a while in the indoor play before 1 last drive around the safari before heading home.

Although not very clear this is Lillie and Hollie on one of the big slides, the red ones to the right are a sheer drop, the blue one has a bit of a drop then as you can see has the bump, the girls were afraid to have a go at first but then went for it and boy was it fast, needless to say they loved it and must've gone down it at least 6 times!

We spent ages watching these 3 monkey's especially the baby, he was so sweet and so very entertaining climbing and swinging on the pile of wood, so funny when it would get to the end of the branch then launch itself onto it's mum, tried so hard to get a piccie but didn't get 1.and just to finish off, we have tiger teeth holes in our back bumper!!! Yes we pulled up alongside the tiger thinking it would cross the road in front of us, but it looked at us then casually went behind the car then we felt the back of the car go down, Matthew was panicking thinking it was on the roof but we hadn't seen it get on, then the warden drove round to check what it was doing and it slowly walked out from behind the car. When we had left the park Matthew pulled up to have a look and his comment was "it's only bitten a f***ing hole in the bumper"!!!! 2 actually! the culprit!

That's it, hope I haven't bored you too much with my waffle and many pictures! Take into consideration I took 265 over the 2 days, I could've showed them all Lol..!!!!

Blog Candy :

Jeanette is celebrating reaching well now passing 10,000 hits to her blog with a delicious candy prize of an image folder complete with images, greetings, flowers etc

Arlinehas a lovely bundle of candy including forever friends bits over on her blog, Arline is celebrating passing 1,000 hits to her blog in only a short space of time and is also a late celebration for her birthday to.

Our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugaris to use this sketch which has been designed by Camilla. Here is my card the image is one that I received recently in a PIF and I think it's sooo.... cute! I've painted it with my pearl paints so it has a lovely shimmer.This weeks prize is the fab 'Lola with Flowers' stamp and some flowers, kindly donated by my design team friend Michelle.

Last weeks 'so charming' cards were gorgeous, some lovely charms and very charming images used. Can't wait to see how you use the sketch this week.

Don't forget if you need any inspiration take a look at the DT cards they are all wonderful.

Sunday, 28 September 2008

My darling hubby comes home occassionally with little gifts he thinks I might like (take into consideration he works for a skip hire company, so these are finds that others have thrown away, the thought that counts I guess!!) he came home with a bag full of artificial flowers the other day, said if I didn't want them they could go in the window boxes of the girls playhouse! So when I spotted a bunch of pointsetta's I got quite excited!Here is a card made with one of themnot sure if I really like it or not, but mum has informed me that I can make her a load of bag-a-lopes for presents to go in for her work friends, so the flowers will be ideal for those!

Saturday, 27 September 2008

Here is my card for this weeks Friday Sketchers challenge/sketch, I haven't used a stamped image as to be honest I didn't feel in the mood for painting today, so instead have used a 3d sticker that I got from Poundland last year, they are so nice, I've got a few more to use so will be posting more cards using them soon!That's it for todays post. We are off to Gullivers theme park tomorrow, then Woburn Safari Park on Monday so got to go now, iron clothes to pack (yes you know me leave it til the very last minute!), then pack, bath the girls, sort my camera out etc etcSet a couple of schedueled posts so a couple of cards to come whilst I am away! TTFN!

Friday, 26 September 2008

Quick Cards Made Easy are trying to become world record holders for making the worlds biggest handmade card. They are asking for handmade cards which must be yellow to be made and sent in so that they can put them all together and form the shape of a giant Pudsey Bear for Children in Need. Now this weeks challenge over at Papertake Weekly is to make a yellow card then send it to Stephanie who in turn will send all of the cards she receives in to QCME and she has promised to donate 25pence per card that she receives for this challenge, how kind!! So what are you waiting for get making those yellow cards if you haven't already done so.Here is a quicky from me, as I have been busy baking away today and haven't had much time to play. The image is a download from Pink Petticoat it was one I had left sitting on my desk from when I made the teachers pressies and cards at the end of last term. It's quite plain but I tried a few things in the corners and they didn't look right, I think it looks ok though. The wooly coat etc is glittered but it doesn't show in the picture!I have been lucky enough to receive another award from my dear friend Becky she is so sweet and is going through a confidence low at the moment, lord knows why her cards are fabulous. She has just won the poetry competition in QCME where you had to add a poem onto the front of your card, Becky's card was excellent with a poem she had written herself, and thoroughly deserved to win. So keep an eye out for her card in the next issue (I think it will be in this one?) so Well Done Becky and thank you so much for the award and send it straight back to you as you to brighten my day ;0)

Anke is celebrating nearly 1,000 hits to her blog by offering a wonderful candy prize of 2 Hanglar & Stanglar stamps of your choice! Wow how I would love any of these stamps!

Kimmie has a gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamp for one lucky person, all you need to do is leave a comment on her post.

Michelle my ASFoS DT buddy has a fabulous candy offer of the most adorable donkey stamps plus a whole load of other goodies. Michelle is celebrating nearly 25,000 hits to her blog, wow how amazing is that?!

Alison is celebrating 10,000 hits on her blog with a scrummy lot of candy, including a cute stamp and papers etc.

Thursday, 25 September 2008

I ordered a christmassy stamp from Clevercut (I think) a while ago as I have decided thanks to Becky that most of my cards are going to be monochrome, which is fab as it means I don't need to do loads of painting!!! The stamp I really wanted was the one Becky used of a snowman from Joanna Sheen it has so much detail, it was out of stock when I tried to order it so ordered the one I have used on these cards as a standby incase I couldn't get it.Although it doesn't show in the pictures (maybe if you can click on it and enlarge it) but I have added sparkles on all of the trees to make it look like frost and on this card have also added some sparkles randomly on the swirly part of the backing paper, this also has a slight shimmer to it. my 2nd card also has the sparkly trees and a bit more bling in the corners as I felt they looked a bit bare!I would love to know what you think of them and if you think they need anything else adding to them, especially in the top corners of the image.I am entering these cards for this weeks Cute Card Thursday (although not sure if you would call them cute?!) as the challenge is 'Lots of Sparkle'.

I had to make an extra 3 cakes for the tea bar yesterday, that's 12 in total this week, and she has put in an order of 12 for next week, so guess what I'm doing tomorrow? Yes I'll be baking my socks off in the kitchen!!!

P.S. I received the above mentioned stamp from Joanna Sheen this morning, and ordered myself some nestabilities yesterday to! But will have to wait to use them as I am giving them to hubby to keep for my birthday!!

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

No it's nothing to do with weddings (you know something borrowed, something blue) it's the theme of this weeks My Time to Craftchallenge. You are only allowed to use blues and white, so with not being able to use flesh colours I thought that rules out my stamps, then thought about a bag-a-lope. I haven't made one of these since the girls broke up from school for the summer holidays, I started off with an A5 white envelope and this is how it ended upthe view from a different angle, not a very big bag but will fit a nice scarf or some jewelery wrapped in tissue paper. The back is decorated with the same papers and a white panel to write the greeting on.I did finish off 3 cards/image folders but in my rush to get all of my post (quite a bit today) ready to take to the post-office I forgot to take picture's of them, doh..!!!

Good morning, thank you to everyone who took part in last weeks A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge it is amazing to see so many people joining in with us. Our challenge for this week is called 'So Charming' it is left to you to interpret this as you please. You can use charms to embellish your card or make a card with a charming character etc.I went with the charms option and have used my 'Planting Some Love' image from Sugar Nellie designed by Elisabeth, this image is just so cute and I have only just realized that the charm I have added says 'made with love' so there is a lot of 'love' going on with my card this week!!

This week we have a delightful CC Designs 'wintertime fun' stamp kit (this is so cute!) kindly donated by Bryony from Silly Monkey Crafts, the winner will be chosen at random.

Monday, 22 September 2008

I feel so lucky and honoured to have received some blog awards over the past few days.I was given the following award from Nikki and Becky

isn't it sweet?!The following award was given to me from Becky and also Debbie

Thank you so much ladies, I can't believe people take time out to look at my blog let alone leave comments and give me awards. I am truly honoured because each of you are so talented, I am honoured to call you my friends.

As for passing on the awards, again I am going to fail at picking out people individually, of course I would send it straight back to those who gave them to me and to any one who is reading this post and doesn't have either of these awards (not many I should think) consider it passed on.

I have managed after several failed attempts today to get onto the Sugar Nellie forum which is running for 1 weeks birthday celebrations. Word is that the new christmas stamps will be available tomorrow ;0)

Saturday, 20 September 2008

I've had one of those days where I've not been able to find the enthusiasm to do much. Although I have made 10 sponge cakes for orders, none for us! So no cards made, but I still have one to show you, I've had this card made for a little while now and because I think it's so pretty didn't want to just 'show' it so have been saving it to fit in with a challenge. Therefore this is my entry for this weeks Stamp Something challenge which is 'embellished somethings' I have added a double flower held in place with a stripey brad, and added some gems in the top right corner and also a heart underneath the image. I just love this Postbox image designed by Elisabeth Bell for Sugar Nellie's, maybe it's because I love to receive post myself! The paper is very pretty with birds on it and is Laura Ashley.

Thursday, 18 September 2008

PIF = Play it forward or Pay it forward or Pass it forward etcI was lucky enough to receive a PIF from Sam ( http://sambythesea.blogspot.com/ ) yesterday, just look at the fab image folder and all the lovely images that she sent me, wow! I will sure have fun with these!So now it is my turn, the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a PIF from me. You have to have a blog to take part as when you receive my goodies (don't know what yet, it'll be a surprise!) you then have to offer PIF candy to the first 3 people to comment on your post (get it?).All you need to do now is leave me a comment, and I'll get the goodies out to you asasp.

I've made a card this morning that combines another 3 challenges, I love it when that happens! The Magnolia challenge is called 'chocolate delight' hence the browns and Tilda's chocolate heart cookies and the delicious cake stand of scrummy delights! Which brings me to this weeks Cute Card Thursdays challenge (kept looking for this yesterday as I was convinced yesterday was Thursday and today Friday!! I don't know wishing my life away as if it's not passing by quick enough already Lol.!) anyhow the challenge is 'food' so think that I've got that covered!! Then there is the sketch by Katharina that I have used for Papertake Weekly.Lillie was the 'special person' at school last week, this lasts for a week and 1 thing that takes place is the 'special person' has to leave the classroom and wait whilst the rest of the children say why they like them! So on Friday Lillie came out of school with thissome of the things are so sweet and some quite funny (well to us, knowing what she is like at home!), her friend Lily is the 1 that said they were like sisters which is true they are, because if they are not bestest friends they are bickering!She had a last minute invite to her friend Elle's birthday party yesterday so I had to fight the ladder down through the loft hatch and go rumaging in the boxes, no not of the girls old things, I like to buy as much as I can in the sales after christmas, yes we go shopping on Boxing Day!!!!! I try to cover as many birthdays, mothers and fathers days and the following christmas presents as I can. Some people think we are mad, but this way we get a lot better presents, but it is getting harder now, when the children were younger you could pretty much get them anything but now, if it's not High School Musical, it's Hannah Montana, or Barbie dolls etc and as for the boys I'm clueless! So heh presto a pail of make-up, most little girls like make-up and the card I made with the 6 on a few days ago and off she went, it was only a small do at the house and when Lily's mum and I went up to collect the girls Donna, Elle's mum was pretty frazzled the children had been so full of energy and into everything that she was glad to be saying goodbye to them, doesn't help being 6 months pregnant either!

and to finish today with news of some blog candy, Bev has a Whiff of Joy candy, on offer is the beautiful Willow with Hot Chocolate stamp and lots of other lovely goodies, for a chance to win enter here

If you would like to follow my blog in your dashboard then click the 'Follow' button to the right. Why not add this content to your blog to so everyone can 'follow' you too?

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

'Christmas is Coming' that's our challenge this week at A Spoon Full of Sugaryes we would like you to make a christmas card simple as that! The prize this week is the cute stamp Lola with Bird and has been kindly donated by Lim.I actually made my card originally for last weeks challenge using Nikki's sketch, then checked the upcoming challenges and realized this week was christmas so made another for that challenge. The image of Simon and Lola (always want to call these Charlie and Lola after the childrens tv characters!) isn't coloured particularly well as this was done way back in February I only started stamping in January! I made a cover for a bar of Matthews favourite chocolate for Valentine's Day and this was the image I put on the front, too cute to throw away I kept it stuck to the door of my desk, just knew it would come in handy someday. So I've used something recyled to, how good of me Lol.!!!The lovely Jacqui (Cats Whiskers) has now joined the Design Team on a permenant basis which is great, Jacqui's cards are fab if you haven't go take a look at her blog and see for yourself. Welcome to the team Jacqui :0)Thank you to everyone who entered last weeks challenge, and look forward to seeing lots of christmassy ones this week. Have fun!

Monday, 15 September 2008

Whilst blog hopping a few days ago I came accross Sally-Ann's blog Grab-a-doodle-do she has some fab downloads which she has designed herself, at the moment there is a 'free' download' to celebrate her upcoming birthday! I purchased the 'Fun and Girly' and 'Fairy Fun' sets, these are fab because not only to you get blank images to colour yourself but also coloured images to, which are so quick to use when you are in a hurry, my problem was deciding which papers to use Lol.!!Anyhow here are a couple of quick Fun and Girly cards and 3 cards using the Fairy Fun download imagesvery simple card, greens for a change, added the '6' so Lillie can give it to her next friend who turns '6' at school.pretty pinks, the spotty paper almost matches the toadstool! I used my punch for the stars then covered them in glue then glitter, added the one in the centre of the flower to match the one on the wand!finally a yellow/beige fairy, added gold glitter to the stars this time, and used the sketch from Sketch Saturday, thought it looked like it was missing something so added the faux stitching around the edge of the card and the image, shame it smudged a little bit, but not all that noticeable.Well it was Hollie's first day back at nursery this morning, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. She seemed happy to be going back, we had talked about it most days, keeping the chat upbeat and saying how as she is one of the oldest she had got to help the new boys and girls settle in and find things as they wouldn't know . Everytime someone said about her going back she would say "I am going to do lots of painting and colouring and playing inside and outside, and have lots of parties to go to!" Lillie has been to a few parties recently so I told Hollie when she makes lots of new friends she will have lots of parties to go to to, bless her! Last night we were sorting out what she was going to wear, they don't have to wear school uniform so we had laid out jeans and a top, until I mentioned the school dress like Lillie's, that was it she wanted to wear that, so we laid it on the end of the bed like Lillie's and this morning she was dressed first! We dropped Lillie off first then went round the corner to the nursery, popped her book bag in her tray, hung her bag on her peg, nice that they had kept them in the same place and not moved them. Then she found her frog (self register) and paid her snack money and I left her with Miss Nicholls looking at the picture she had made for them. No tears, no fuss at all and big smiles when I picked her up, she told me she had had a nice time but hadn't done any painting! Oh well plenty of days for that heh!Hollie has made a few of these pictures since Lillie has been back to school, as she has been a bit lost without her. The pictures are Sarah Kay clipart as I don't have any of the stamps, her colouring is getting pretty good considering she's not 4 until christmas. I cut my scraps of paper into pieces for her then she merrily sticks them onto a piece of A5 card with the picture in the middle. Brings them to me when she has finished and I make the holes and add the ribbon or fibres to hang her pictures with. She took the one on the left to school today but insisted I added a bow to her hat before she took it!!

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About Me

Hi I'm Joanne, I am 41 years old, happily married to Matthew and we have 2 beautiful girls, Lillie and Hollie and our dear little boy Jacobie (the dog!!).
I love crafting and tinker around for hours! Card making is my favourite pastime, I also do a bit of jewelery making when I have the patience! and have now started blinging shoes/trainers/anything blingable lol!! I also love to cook/bake, therefore if I'm not at my desk I'm in the kitchen! Anything other than housework!!